My sisters son wanted a ShyGuy mask (Nintendo IP from the Mario universe) for a theme party.
Since the mask is dome shaped and domes usually look awful, when printed with 0.2 or lower resolution, I tried the latest feature in Cura and it worked awesome.
Basically this new feature increases the layer height depending on the model. Yes, you could do change the layer height at any position using per layer settings changes, but this is different. It changes the layer height depending on the z shape and and layer, which is awesome.
The 0.2 print time was about 12 hours. With enabled adaptive layer feature it added about 30 minutes, but the resulting surface looks stunning. If I would have used 0.1 all the way up, it would have nearly doubled the print time and it wouldn´t look as good for sure as this is dynamically changing the height per layer. I used 0.1mm as maximum deviation and 0.01mm as step size. I think both were defaults for adaptive layer height anyway.
I posted a make on thingiverse and as you can see on the image only the small section between the eyes is rough, which is also the highest section of the mask. The rest probably does not even need sanding. I never saw a 3d printed round shape that smooth without sanding.
I printed the mask in ABS to give it a little flex.
So If you need a round shape, give the “adaptive layer height” (back translated as I only see German texts) within the experimental section a chance. The top section was not perfect, but the rest was stunning!
